Melia Peninsula Varadero: Great resort for family and adults! 41/2 stars!

Hi, I just returned from the Melia Peninsula and have to say we were very pleased. It was my first time in Cuba but my sister has been three times. The grounds are beautiful with lush greenery everywhere that is very well maintained. The rooms are simple but clean and the maids are exceptionally helpful as is all the staff. The food was very, very good. Much better than I has expected. There is food available 24 hours a day. I was a little disappointed in the fruit selection as it was mo [... read more]stly local fruit although there was always pineapple and grapefruit. The rest of the food made up for the lack of fruit. There was food available everywhere from the adult pool to the kids pool it was always only a few steps away Bar was open 24 hours as was the cappucino bar (my favourite). The a la carte restaurants were very good comparable to restaurants at home (Montreal, Canada). The beach was spectacular! Hope I am not forgetting anything. Oh the kids area was amazing!!!!!. Would definitely highly recommend it.

Melia Peninsula Varadero: Pleasent stay

Just returned from my 7day stay at melia peninsula . Very enjoyable vacation. Beach absolutely stunning .never a problem to find bed or shade . Dont have to get up 6 or 7 to reserve. Grounds are in great shape. Lots of greenery well kept by gardeners Food quite tasty. Knowing that Cuba is not the best when it comes to the cuisine. Didnt try any a la carte because dont want to be tied up with any schedule. Stuff very friendly and helpful. Rooms basic but decent and comfortable. Overall ver [... read more]y pleasent vacation

Melia Peninsula Varadero: Nice resort

Myself and 3 other girl friends arrived at this hotel at the early hour of 1am March 9th. The bell boy brought us to our building which was building 29. He took our luggage right up to our rooms which were on the 3rd floor, and we tipped him and he was on his way. The rooms were ok, but needed to be updated. Bathroom was good. Huge shower, working toilet and a make up mirror. Bar fridge was filled up every second day. (1 bottle of water every day) 2 beer, 2 pop. The maid was awesome! Very sweet [... read more] girl. We left two paso's for her every day. The first day we left the room and forgot to close the safe, nothing was missing. Do not leave any opened food or anything sugary left unattended, lots of little red ants! We brought a can of raid which came in handy.. The grounds are very clean and well attended to. Beautiful flower bushes and different plants, lots of palm trees.... Food... Not a whole lot of choice in the buffet. Hardly any fruit all week, I love bananas and I didn't see one all week... french fries only one day.. If your a fussy eater I suggest you book at another resort. We did 3 a la cart restaurants. Japanese was awesome, really enjoyed the Mexican and we also ate at the Italian which was just ok... Pool with swim up bar was great. They had daily activities which we didn't partake in... There is also a children's pool that has a day care, water slide. lots of chairs and palapas... Beach was awesome! Loved the ocean! The man working the beach was always ready to help you find a spot. We tipped him a paso every day and gave him treats. There is a huge lobby at this resort where there are many people who go there to get wifi on their phones. You buy a phone card for one paso and its good for one hour. Don't forget to turn off your wifi when your finished using your phone to save the wifi that you haven't used. We also did face time on Facebook Messenger using wifi... We didn't see all the night time shows but they had a few really good bands come to the resort that we really enjoyed... We really enjoyed this resort but the food quality and choices really were bad...

Paradisus Princesa Del Mar: Beyond amazing resort and staff

We have been guests at Princess Del Mar on 5 occasions (three times at the main resort and twice at the Royal Service) and have found the resort to be a fantastic, beautiful and a well maintained place to vacation. The food is above par for Cuba and even a few other country's we've been to, as there is an abundance of selection with many options to have the food cooked to your preference. The beach area is large with lots of lounge chairs and umbrellas. We have found the staff to be professio [... read more]nal and helpful (especially on the Royal Service portion of the resort). Clean up from the recent storm was amazing and they seem to be always continuing to improve various aspects of the resort. Nightly entertainment is always fun, varied and well planned. Overall we would definitely give this resort a five star rating. The only suggestions we would have are that they would add a few more umbrellas for the pool area and that they designate a smoking area which is away from the common areas such as the bar, food, beach and pool. That way non smokers and people with breathing issues could enjoy these areas without having to move. We don't wish to impede on their rights, but I believe we also have some too.

Melia Cayo Santa Maria: Beautiful resort!

First time to Cuba and we loved it! The weather, grounds, beach, weather was just amazing!! The food was ok meaning you’ll never starve but you can’t compare it to Mexico as this is a communist Country and what they import is limited....Capuccino’s at lobby and snack bar were delicious! Beach Grill was good.....Entertainment was hit and miss but enjoyed violinist every night...!

Hotel Camino del Mar: Good week at Melia Guillermo

After reading the reviews, we expected some issues regarding rooms in need of repair and water issues but the positives were the beach, and the people. This is pretty much what we got. The beach is terrific as we remember it and there were more loungers and palapas than I have ever seen. All the workers were super. Our first night, we realized our room (2225) was over the lobby bar. Around 2:30am, we asked to change rooms. Eduardo at the front desk said that he could offer only one room  [... read more]at that point and that we could look at it. He also said that rooms would become available the next day. The new room was older but we took it. I believe we were the only guests in the block, probably because the rooms were very dated. During the week, we could see rooms being completely refurbished in other blocks. We ate at the International but we found that the service was a bit rushed and the place lacked the ambiance. The buffet offered the usual grilled foods and there was a lot of variety. The food was fine. We enjoyed eating outside on the evenings the tables were set up outside. The buffet restaurant is very warm and it’s too bad that there are no open windows. The beach grill was great and we enjoyed lunch there everyday. We also ate at the Lobster Shack next to the resort, directly on the beach. Price was CUC 25 each and a bottle of wine was CUC 10. Lobster was good and we enjoyed the meal. There are some one storey bungalows and these seem to be refurbished. We were able to see one and the room was very nicely done. Carlos is the general manager and he can be seen in all areas of the resort. He chats with guests, including us, at breakfast. We discussed our room issue and he was ready to take notes until he heard that Eduardo dealt with the problem. If we had a newer room, we would go back.

Melia Cayo Coco: Top notch

We had a great experience at the Melia cayo coco food was excellent staff us fantastic loved everything about it. the recovery from the hurricane has been impressive with how well everything runs and looks

Melia Las Dunas: Great beach

sprawling well maintained property,no mosquitos garden staff does an excellent job and are very helpful with directions . Please remember to also tip them.My room had a very well designed bathroom and was well cleaned. The maid was exceedingly efficient .A fresh cost of paint is very much needed to compliment the room and complete the total resort ambiance . The beach is the best and one will be surprised how far one can wade into the ocean and still stand up. Good for non swimmers . Bars and R [... read more]estos on the beach are great .Getting a beach chair even at busy spring break was not a problem. Great job by the beach attendants. Wifi service worked very well. Take time to read the terms of usage from first log on .Bar staff and bar entertainment was great. My disappointment started with the food .The buffet does have a few good offerings . No one will starve however most all of the food was very bland no dpi you sauces available salt and pepper shakers needed to be unblocked and refilled,rice was at most times very salty as echoed by a few ppl with whom I chatted. I observed that leftover of one offering was dumped into the other container and would magically appear the next day as a choice. A microwave or warming station should be set up for those of us who like their food hot.would accommodate that preference after having to wait in long lines and walk to the table. Getting a hot cup of water was a struggle . Spoons don't seem to exist as part of the table setup .The waiter's serving area for juice or coffee needs a good cleaning .dirty walls from poring spills. After 3 days the food is monotonous and some not as fresh. Salad bar was always surprisingly great .Desserts were just good period.,lots of the usual choices with some surprises.Some recycled fruit,didn't. Always look fresh .plenty of different meats from the chef prepared stations, Fish also but sometimes very salty. The best tasting food was from the oriental resto. Italian resto pizza was cold burnt service very poor .The 90 mins drive from the airport is a bit much but the coach was comfortable and the driver was careful . The Air transat rep on the return leg was very detailed about the different sights along the way and I got a better understanding of the way of life in Cuba , Made me kinda sad, Honestly,if you don't mind paying a lot of money to be dropped unto an island with a great beach ,this hotel is for you . Did I feel safe? YES. Would I go there again? NO. Glad for the experience .

Paradisus Varadero: Great vacations

The hotel was nicely laid out. Grounds were well kept. Impossible to book a la cartes. We only got one. Staff friendly. Food at buffet was very good. Beach area was amazing. Spa was very overpriced for what you received. I usually love a couple spa days on vacation however it was not worth the money.

Melia Peninsula Varadero: Fair Resort - starting to show its age.

Staff was very friendly and helpful. Good value all considered and the flight to and from Hamilton was a bonus. Food is better than what most people are saying. Lots of familiar food and if you want to eat more of the Cuban food you can do so. Beaches are spectacular but pool and the resort itself is a little dated. Nightly musical entertainment at the lobby was stellar. The ala carte restaurants on site were so-so. There are a few resorts under construction in the area which reportedly w [... read more]ill be ready for 2020.

Melia Jardines del Rey: Less than expected from Melia.

Previously visited Melia eight times (6x Punta Cana,2x Cayo Coco) so we know what to expect from Melia. Our recent trip to Melia Jardines del Rey was first two weeks in March. The resort is very nice in cuban way, meaning that there is better Melias in Dom.Rep. Also you can still see some damage from last hurricane. Other than that grounds are well maintained for the size of the resort. There is lack of bathrooms around pools and some restaurants and is long walk to get there in some location [... read more]s. If you like beach, is one of the most beautiful, even more than Punta Cana. Rooms are nice, we stayed at building 21 room 212 witch was first floor, had pool view, corner unit, so you have extra window in the room, and was close to pool, beach, restaurants and lobby, just the toilets take 3 to 4 times to flush. Food is like every resort in Cuba, don't expect much but you survive. The shows sucks, just some lobby musics is some days OK, but they are loud. Overall nice resort for Cuba and if you watch the price is not that bad. Also if you booking put in your request for building and floor they usually fulfil it.

Sol Rio de Luna y Mares: Nice!

Clean resort with very conscientious and friendly staff. Food was decent for Cuba. Beach was beautiful. Drinks were very average. Airport to resort was 1.5 hours. Our room overlooked the pool and could see the ocean as well. Our maid service was very good.

Melia Las Dunas: Good resort

Beautiful beaches but very hard to find beach chairs because people put towels to save them and we had to wake up at 5:30 am to reserve couple if lucky to find any. Same thing for the pool. I had a nice room but my brothers room was moldy and smelled very bad, also they had big black cockroaches. The rooms always clean thanks to Carlito. The best thing on this resort is ENTERTAIMENT and the worst think is not having beach towel change for 10 days that i stayed in. Thank god i got thin towels f [... read more]rom home so washed them. Overall we had fun I will recommend this hotel to friends but also give them tips how to be prepared

Melia Jardines del Rey: Would not recommend

my wife and i were at this resort in early March. We booked 2 weeks and ended up asking to be moved to a different resort after the first week. We have been to Cuba many times and have a good idea of what to expect. This was our experience from start to finish: Check-in: we arrived at the hotel around noon, every one was herded into a room where we handed in our passports and were assigned a room. However only a small portion of the people there were assigned a room. The rest had to wait. It wa [... read more]s like a lottery. We waited till 3pm to get a room. Not unusual for an early arrival, but a strange system to make guests feel welcome. Room: nice clean large room. comfy king size bed. Lots of hot water in the shower. TV worked. One 1 litre bottle of water 2 beers in the fridge. Cleaning/Maid: not great. pretty sure the floor wasn't washed all week as the same stains were on the floor all week. one day we had the" do not disturb sign" up and did not have our room cleaned. at 4 pm I noticed that we had no water and very little toilet paper. i found the maid and asked for both of these items. Twice she told me there was nothing she could do. i tried calling the front desk but both phones in the room did not work. Customer Service: after getting no where with the maid i went to customer service to ask for water and toilet paper. i saw them write the info down. At 7pm we were out of toilet paper so i returned to customer service, when i stepped out of my room i stepped into ankle deep water. water was leaking from somewhere into the hall and creating a huge pool. I reported the leak and once again they wrote it down and assured me someone would be by soon. At 10.30 pm i returned again to find out what is going on. they assured me that they knew about the leak and that i would have water and toilet paper soon. at 10.45 a bottle of water showed up. at 11 pm a lady showed up with towels. i gave her my empty roll of toilet paper and she took off once again. by 11.15 we had toilet paper. no one came to clean up the puddle in the hall. it wasnt cleaned up till the maids came in at 9am the next day. this leak happened twice and both times it was ignored until the maids came in the next day. Restaurants: Buffet was very poor. none of the food is labeled. it was hard to identify the dishes. always running out of plates, butter and bread. when you would speak to staff and ask about any thing they all claimed that they did not know. instead of saying 'let me find out' it is 'i dont know'. when they did have bread it was dry and poor quality. overall the food was very poor quality. the a la cartes are hit and miss. we had a good experience at the Bistro but poor experiences at the Ranchon and the Tex Mex. rude staff and poor service. Snack bars: always out of pizza or chicken or what ever. not sure why they have a menu as half of what they have on it is not available at any given time. Bars: every day the bars were running out of beer by 1 pm. this is not an exaggeration. out of all the bars it was hit and miss. when we had rum drinks they were watered down awful. my wife is not a drinker, at all, she drank 5 mohitos over a 3 hour period and had no effects. normally one and a half drinks would make her loopy. Staff: many were ok and even good. unfortunately too many of them are rude and very unhelpful. Towels: we got 2 towels on arrival. inspite of going to the towel hut multiple times every day to exchange them we could not get new towels. the staff had no idea how to deal with this issue. i blame this on the hotel management. towels came in once a day at random times so you never knew when to go. when they did get towels they were handed out in less then 45 minutes. apparently we were lucky to get towels at all as many people we spoke to never got towels. when i was at customer service i actually heard a manager tell a guest that they should just use there room towels at the beach! Water: you get one 1 litre bottle per room per day. we tried exchanging our empty bottle at bars and restaurants and were told no. the bars had no way of filling your bottle and there are no water stations any where. if you wanted more water you had to buy it from the store. Beach: 5 star beach. not enough palapas but plenty of chairs. Pool: nice pool. plenty of algae on the tiles but clean and cool water. Resort Bathrooms: the ladies bathrooms were awful. either no toilet paper or no door or no toilet seat or any combination of the 3. always dirty. broken taps and broken soap dispensers. As I said we are very familiar with Cuba and have low expectations, we know what to expect and not to expect, but this was awful .The frustrating part is that so much of what we experienced could have been avoided with good customer service techniques. we just felt like the Hotel Management did not care and that this allowed their staff not to care. No one wanted to take responsibility. 6 days in we went to Yanine the Airtransat rep at the hotel and asked to be moved. Turns out we were supposed to see a Hola Sun rep but she helped us anyways! Thank you Yanine! She spoke to the Manager and they managed to get us switched to the Memories Flamenco a few resorts further up the beach. we were treated like royalty compared to our experience at the Melia. Our week at the Flamenco was awesome.

Melia Las Dunas: Another unforgettable time in Melia Las Dunas

Returning guests to the Melia. Clean resort, friendliest staff (shoutout to Alia and Andry at the Family pool!). Food was short this year, lack of pizza at the snack bar. Everything else was amazing. Miss the sports bar already! I would definitely return.

Sol Cayo Coco: Fantastic Resort

Stayed March 5th. to 12th. 2019 This resort should definitely be upgraded to a four star. The place was spotlessly clean, the grounds were immaculate, Food was good and varied, but the staff takes the cake. They were attentive, polite and eager to please, and seemed even reluctant to take tips. Particular kudos to Kenia, Yandry, Yasmany, Riley and Michael the singing egg man in the Buffet.

Melia Peninsula Varadero: A good resort!!!

The resort grounds were very clean. Our room itself was very clean and was situated close to the pool and close to the beach. The water pressure in the renovated shower was a plus!!! Our mini fridge however was not stocked daily...good thing the servers at the buffet Melissa and Annabelle were always so kind and always had a bottle of water ready for us to take when they seve breakfast. The staff who cleaned our room Yanelis is amazing! My kids love seeing her towel origamis in our bed. There ar [... read more]e a lot of very hardworking and kind people in this resort that I felt right at home. The food in the buffet was a bit repetitive but theres plenty to choose from. I traveled with a teenager a school age and an infant and there's always something for them to eat. In terms of ala cart....the Mexican restaurant called Tocorro was good but service is very slow but we were happy to have chicken fingers for the kids. The cuban restaurant was also ok ....I paid extra for the lobsters and my family really enjoyed it. In terms of the beach...it was amazing!! The water during this March break was a tad cold during the day but get much warmer around 2pm....the seaweeds were removed every morning. It's a public beach but we were never bothered. It's a good idea to bring your own travel mugs so you can get drinks before getting comfy under the palapas....btw there were plenty of palapas no pro getting a spot though I take morning walks at the beach so I do reserve the ones closest to the beach girls my fam We didn't drink much but my teenager never had a shortage of pina coladas...I was disappointed though that they didn't have fresh coconut juice to offer but perhaps its not in season. Overall it was a great and pleasant trip...a good break from subzero temps here in Ontario... we will first sure go back.

Melia Jardines del Rey: Malia hardiness de Rey

The rooms service was amazing, the grounds very clean and well maintained, but the food was so bad. They need improve on the food. Same meals for lunch and dinner. Chicken and fish not well cooked. People are great, good service from front desk.

Melia Jardines del Rey: melia jardines del ray...cayo coco

terrible---i have been to 7 resorts now and this one takes the cake. worst ever and i was not the only one that did not like it.most of the people there were happy to leave could not get out of there fast enough...the only thing good about this resort is that there was a pool and sun...never recommend it or ever go back

Melia Varadero: Very Good Resort!

Hotel is going through renovations but it's still pretty good, location is great and the beach is awesome! The food was average, service at the bar was a little slow, our room was clean and all the elevators in the hotel were working.